MHA seeks full report on BSF jawan video by tomorrow

Constable Tej Bahadur Yadav has now been shifted from the Line of Control to a nearby battalion in Poonch.

The Union home ministry has asked the Border Security Force to submit a fact report by Wednesday in the case involving a jawan, who claimed poor quality food was being served to soldiers on the Line of Control, whose social media video posts have prompted authorities to initiate action into the allegations.

Officials said the BSF headquarters here has already submitted a preliminary report in the case to the home ministry today and a full report is being prepared by a deputy-inspector-general-rank officer who is based in Jammu and Kashmir.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had also taken note of the video on Monday and ordered an ‘appropriate action’ into the incident.

‘I have seen a video regarding a BSF jawan's plight. I have asked the HS (home secretary) to immediately seek a report from the BSF & take appropriate action,’ Singh had tweeted.

Earlier in the day, BSF said the constable, Tej Bahadur Yadav of the 29th battalion, who posted these videos was court-martialed in 2010 for indiscipline and aiming a gun at a senior officer even as it assured of a thorough probe into his allegations.

The border guarding force, in a statement issued on Monday, had called Yadav a ‘bad hat’ and habitual offender.

Asserting that the complainant was a regular offender and has not been promoted even once in his 20 years of service, DIG M D S Mann said that poor career growth could be a reason behind his act.

Mann said that a probe has been initiated.

“He is a bad hat. In his service of twenty years, he has four bad entries, which includes intoxication, AWL, fighting with seniors, offending their orders. And, because of all these flaws, he has not been promoted even once, and this might be the cause of his frustration,” said Mann.

"We have initiated an inquiry in the matter and in the span of four to five days, the standard of food, quality and quantity of all the posts, will be checked. A report will be formed after a detailed inspection which will be forwarded. If any of his allegations are found true we will certainly initiate action against the defaulters," he added.

BSF Inspector General in Jammu D K Upadhyaya said that ‘prima facie it was found that no other jawan deployed at the same place had any problem with the quality of food being served to them’.

In videos uploaded on social media platforms, the jawan, wearing camouflage uniform and carrying a rifle, claimed that while government procures essentials for them, the higher-ups and officers ‘sell it off’ in an ‘illegal’ manner in the market and they have to suffer.

He had also alleged that troops are facing ‘cruelty’ as they are served ‘bad quality’ food and even have to go ‘empty stomach’ at times.

The jawan hails from Mahendragarh district of Haryana and had joined the force in 1996.

Yadav was currently deployed along the Line of Control in the Rajouri sector of J and K and has now been shifted to a nearby battalion pending the Court of Inquiry.